Configuring WHM backups and retention for the available storage

Confirm administrator responsibility, available local staging space and an independent remote destination. Define how much data loss and downtime the service can tolerate, then choose a schedule that supports those goals. Keep backups outside public website directories.

1. Open Backup Configuration and enable the supported scheduled backup system. Choose compressed, uncompressed or incremental storage according to capacity and destination compatibility.
2. Set the daily, weekly or monthly schedule and retention. Review strict retention carefully because it can remove older copies even when newer backups fail.
3. Enable the required user and system data, select accounts, and decide how suspended accounts are handled. Ensure databases are covered by an appropriate supported backup method. PostgreSQL databases are not included by default; if the server hosts them, explicitly configure their supported backup option or another tested backup process and verify that a real database can be recovered.
4. Set a valid local backup and restore-staging location with enough headroom. Keep the available-space check enabled and account for transfer queues accumulating local archives.
5. Configure and validate an additional remote destination. Save, observe a complete backup cycle and verify both creation and transfer results.
6. Restore a representative account or selected data into an isolated test environment, documenting actual recovery time and any missing dependencies.

Fresh usable backups should exist at the intended locations, retention should behave as planned and a test restore should recover the required application data. A green scheduled-job entry alone is insufficient.

If a backup is missing, inspect account selection, quota pressure, destination errors and scheduling overlap. Raw copies of a running database directory are not automatically consistent; use a recoverable database method and test it. Incremental backups have destination restrictions that must match the selected transport.

No. A disk or server failure can affect both copies. Use an independently protected destination and control access to its credentials, while retaining a tested retrieval procedure.

• Validating a remote WHM backup destination
• Choosing which accounts participate in WHM backups
• Restoring an account from a WHM backup
• Investigating a failed WHM backup job

• cPanel: Backup Configuration
• cPanel: Backup Retention Behavior